Rutgers steps up efforts to go global, attract foreign students

Rutgers University's Old Queens building on the New Brunswick campus. University officials are hoping to attract more foreign students and start international programs to expand Rutgers' global reach.Mike Nixon/The Times of Trenton

NEW BRUNSWICK—More than 145 years ago, a young Japanese samurai named Kusakabe Taro made his way to the shores of the Raritan River to study math and science as the first-ever international student at Rutgers University.

Since then, Rutgers has welcomed tens of thousands of foreign scholars and regularly sent its own students and professors to study overseas. But New Jersey’s state university has gradually fallen behind similar-sized colleges in reaching out to the rest of the world.

Now, Rutgers wants to get a lot more global. The university is stepping up efforts to attract foreign students, offer study abroad programs and start international partnerships, according to a new report.

The university will focus its efforts on five countries — Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Liberia — to tap into nations with young populations open to collaborations with a U.S. university.

Early initiatives have already resulted in a modest spike in international students. Last year, nearly 4,200 foreign students from more than 100 countries enrolled on Rutgers’ New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses. Most were on the New Brunswick campus, where an influx of Chinese students has helped boost international enrollment nearly 30 percent in five years, campus officials said.

Joanna Regulska, Rutgers’ vice president for international and global affairs, said the 58,000-student university needs to reach outside U.S. borders to stay relevant.

"These days you can’t function as an institution without the global connections," Regulska said today from Poland, where she is doing a research project.

Regulska was appointed in 2011 to help expand Rutgers’ global connections. A new report by Rutgers’ Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs found:

• Last year, 34 delegations from 17 countries visited Rutgers as the university works on setting up partnerships with foreign institutions. Those visits included eight delegations from China, where Rutgers has signed more than 40 agreements with local institutions to exchange students and offer joint programs.

• Rutgers is asking its professors to begin thinking globally. For the first time this school year, the university is asking faculty to present their accomplishments in international research and teaching as part of their tenure and promotion reviews.

• More Rutgers students are studying abroad. Enrollment in Rutgers study abroad programs jumped from 359 to 620 over the last five years. Students had twice as many choices of where to study with programs in 40 countries, including new offerings in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

"Study Abroad is an important experience because so many issues in our world are global," Shadi Mousavi, a Rutgers student from Howell who spent her junior year studying international relations in Brussels and French literature in Paris, said in the report.

Rutgers officials said they are using a combination of state funding, tuition money and private donations to fund its international programs.

Increasing international enrollment can mean big money for the university because foreign undergraduates pay $26,393 in tuition and fees, double what in-state students pay. Setting up overseas partnerships can also lead to more grants and research funding for the university, campus officials said.

Regulska, Rutgers’ vice president for international and global affairs, said the university is sensitive to criticism international students are taking seats at a time when many New Jersey students are having trouble getting into the state’s crowded public colleges.

Foreign students bring a critical international perspective to campus, which is especially important for Rutgers students who can not afford the opportunity to study abroad themselves, Regulska said.

"If we have more international students, we internationalize the classroom," Regulska said. "Our students learn from each other. They become friends."